California lawmakers and crisis-system providers used a May 12 oversight hearing to press state agencies on whether the state’s 988 network is living up to the promise of AB 988.
Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan said the system has saved lives but remains incomplete because 988-911 interoperability is not fully live statewide, mobile crisis teams are not uniformly dispatched through 988, and funding has not kept pace with demand. Several witnesses echoed that the network is underfunded, particularly for text and chat services, which they said are used heavily by youth and LGBTQ+ callers.
The hearing also surfaced a concrete capacity marker from the Department of Health Care Services. DHCS said California’s 988 crisis centers handled more than 74,000 contacts in March 2026 and that unanswered contacts are routed to out-of-state backup centers.
State officials said they have built out a five-year implementation plan, held public meetings and tribal focus groups, conducted trainings, and launched multilingual and tribal outreach campaigns. But they also acknowledged continuing work on technology, reimbursement, governance and statewide consistency.
San Joaquin County described a local model that links 988, access lines and mobile crisis teams, while the Native American affairs portion of the hearing focused on tribal outreach and culturally responsive routing for callers in California Indian communities.
The hearing summary did not indicate any formal committee action or follow-up directive.
